Amending Your Parenting Plan Before The Holidays
The holidays are fast approaching and if you have been through a divorce and are co-parenting, you likely have a parenting plan in place that outlines how your children will spend their time over the holiday season. This parenting plan or custody agreement may have been negotiated during the divorce process. However, as your kids age and family circumstances change, these parenting plans may need to be changed to meet everyone’s needs. Your kids may have different preferences, your family may have new traditions, or you or your ex may have remarried and have a blended family. Changes in a parenting plan
To be good at divorce mediation requires the development of many different kinds of skills. Good divorce mediators must have natural empathy, knowledge of divorce law (specifically Minnesota divorce law), excellent communication skills, even better listening skills, and the capacity to solve problems. In addition, good divorce mediators empower their clients to move on to the next chapters of their lives.
If you have a parenting agreement, sometimes also known as a child custody agreement, it can be modified if a change is necessary. In fact, it is nearly impossible to predict how your lives will change after divorce, activities and schedules that your kids will have as they get older, and how their needs and preferences will change. When you finalize a divorce, you create a parenting agreement that outlines child custody arrangements that are ideal for that particular time. One year later, 3 years later or 7 years later, your family’s needs may change
Making the decision to get a divorce is a huge life change. This is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make, and it can have a significant impact on the lives of your entire family. For many couples, however, it is the right decision, despite the difficulty. Taking that first step can seem impossible for many different reasons. You may not know what step to take, you may not feel certain it’s the right step, or you may have so many questions that you feel paralyzed. This is all a normal response to such a major life decision. Johnson Mediation can help you take that first step when the time is right, help you define your priorities and goals and then move through the process with less stress.
The divorce process is all consuming and likely is the culmination of many months or years of high conflict and unhappiness. Once you make the decision to divorce, it can be difficult to see past the process, as the divorce process itself can take many months, especially if you go through the courts. Johnson Mediation offers an alternative to this model of a long, drawn-out process. Divorce mediation allows you to see past the divorce process to your future. Focusing on your future and your family, rather than the pain of your past can give you the strength you need to take those final steps through the process.
